It Must Be Baseball Season, Because Carl Crawford Is Hurting

There’s no such thing as “too many outfielders.” We’ve been saying that forever, but can we finally agree on that, please? We already know that Matt Kemp isn’t going to Australia, and until we hear about the results of his MRI test, we won’t even know when he’ll be cleared to run at full speed — which, remember, he has not done yet. There’s not currently a date for him to get into spring games.

And now, Carl Crawford is already dealing with “tightness in his right quad,” as relayed by Eric Stephen from Don Mattingly, which he felt was tight “all day” yesterday. It will keep him out of today’s game and tomorrow’s as well, with hopes to get back in on Saturday. The usual platitudes apply: It’s Feb. 27, there’s no need to rush anyone, even guys like Mike Baxter need to play in spring, etc. If this were the regular season, maybe Crawford would be fine to play. (Or maybe he’d push through it and injure himself further, which is usually what happens.)

Just remember: “too many outfielders” isn’t a problem until it’s a problem. Last year, when Skip Schumaker, Scott Van Slyke, Jerry Hairston, Chili Buss, Alex Castellanos, and Elian Herrera combined to start 99 games in the outfield, the problem was not enough outfielders. Until further notice, it’s still the same problem. If and when it is “too many” — if that ever happens, which I’m skeptical of — it’s a good problem to have. It’s better than this one.

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D’Backs (ss)

Dodgers

12:05pm PT

Glendale, Ariz.

CF

Campana

2B

Gordon

2B

Pennington

CF

Ethier

SS

Owings

SS

Ramirez

1B

Jacobs

1B

Gonzalez

RF

Tuiasosopo

RF

Puig

3B

Lamb

LF

Baxter

DH

Duncan

3B

Uribe

LF

Dorn

C

Federowicz

C

Gosewich

DH

Guerrero

P

Delgado

P

Greinke

Your lineups for today’s home opener against Arizona at right, with no A.J. Ellis, who is down with the flu, potentially from eating too much “Volcanic Jalapeno” jerky, which is a real thing. As with every other non split-squad game, the SNLA broadcast is available with no blackout concerns on MLB.tv.